Jesus is the God that doesn't meet our expectations, but he is doing so much more. The season of Advent addresses our expectations of Jesus and reconnects us with how God moves in our lives.

Advent shows us that as we long for the return of our Savior, we live in the poverty of our own autonomy. In Christ, God also sent us a King.

In one of the most epic passages in the Old Testament Esther goes from a complicated bride to a consecrated queen with one simple decision to trust her God. But what does this have to do with Jesus? Or with us for that matter? Well, you live in the palace too. And you have to make a decision to either live the palace life or trust in God.

Esther is one of the most misunderstood characters in the Bible. Most think she is either a victim, a coward, or a sellout. The author of Esther gives us a complicated and compromised view of Esther. But those typical views of Esther look at her in isolation from the rest of the grand story of God. Maybe we should ask what does God think of Esther? In this sermon on Esther 2, we look a little deeper and find the answer to that question and so much more!

The devil is real, and he's at work. Waiting for just the right moment to attack. He is patient, motivated, personal, and he seeks to devour you. The Lord's Prayer shows us that this life is a battle, and this prayer is how we prepare for that battle!

Forgiveness is hard. But Jesus' teaching on forgiveness is even harder. Jesus challenges our ideas about forgiveness in these passages, but the question you have to answer is "Is hanging onto that grudge worth your relationship with God"?

What does it mean to pray for God's kingdom to come in the Lord's Prayer? The kingdom of God can be something mysterious to us, yet Jesus puts it at the very front of our prayer. When we see the gospel in light of the kingdom, it reveals how Jesus was teaching us to pray for the power of the gospel to be at work in our lives, especially when life gets hard and we struggle to know what to pray.

Prayer is the means of leading us into communion and closeness to God. But sometimes the more we pray the more distant we feel from Him. How can prayer make us feel so close and so far from God at the same time? What really is the purpose of prayer? We search deeper into The Lord's Prayer this week in search for the answers!

We close our sermon series on the seven deadly sins this week with Anger. Looking at Absalom in 2 Sam 13 we see Absalom's desire for justice turn into a lust for vengeance. When he gets his vengeance, instead of his anger being quenched, it is only kindled until it destroys him. Stop planning your revenge and turn your eyes upon Jesus.

To understand sloth we need to start from scratch. Forget what you think you know about sloth and join us on this introspective journey into the most misunderstood of the seven deadly sins. Sloth is deeply woven into the fabric of our brokenness.

Lust is a deeply personal and powerful sin that impacts our lives. How are we to think about lust and how can we battle against it to experience freedom and new life in Christ?

Greed is a sin that hides unlike any other. It hides behind our comparisons and excuses and endless craving for more. But greed isn’t about how much you own, it’s about what owns you.

There are many things in this small passage that don't seem to make sense to a modern mind. Peter is speaking the gospel into a particular time and place. Peter wants to teach us how the Church should engage the state, how the Church should engage injustice and how the Church should engage the way of Jesus Christ.

We are all priests in exile? What does that mean? God is building a priesthood of believers. A community of redemption. It is only in this priesthood, this community, that we will find the answers to our suffering, our grief, and our pain. We are priests exiled together for the glory of Christ and the life of the world.

When was the last time you felt hope? As we continue asking, "What is my salvation for?", Peter teaches us that it's so we might hope. But knowing the hope of our salvation requires that we understand that we live in exile, because this world is not our home. When we see the hopeless reality of sin in this world, we experience the hope of what God has done in this world through Jesus Christ.

In this Easter Sunday sermon on John 20 we look at Thomas. Oftentimes people use Thomas as an example of what not to do, so much so that he's called "Doubting Thomas". But doubt comes to us all more easily than we'd like to admit. But John doesn't highlight Thomas as a warning against doubt, he highlights Thomas for his faith in the midst of his doubt. Thomas needed a Scarred God and so do we.

The way that Jesus talks about discipleship is different than the way we think about discipleship. We may be able to say how to find eternal life in Jesus, but what about life now? How do we change and grow and experience the newness of life that Jesus offers us? In this sermon on John 15, Jesus teaches us what it means to abide in him so that we might bear fruit and experience new life.

Why did Jesus wash his disciples' feet? The footwashing story is central to Christianity and what it means to be followers of Jesus. His display of sacrificial, self-giving love is the example he leaves us to also love another, yet we so often fall short and get stuck in our discipleship. In this sermon on John 13, we look at why Jesus humiliated himself to wash his disciples' feet and what it means for us as followers of this Footwashing God.

What is the meaning of Judges 19? The downward spiral of Judges culminates in this story in the most horrific chapter in the Bible. The writer wants us to see the depths of evil that have overtaken the people of God. Yet, in the midst of all the depravity and evil, through the silent sacrifice of the woman, Jesus is giving us the blueprint for how he will identify with the suffering and destroy evil. Join us on the journey to study the scripture and grow closer to Christ.

Gideon is a complex character in the Bible. We see him doing righteous acts, but for what reason? Gideon's story shows us that there's an altar buried deep within us, and on top of that altar, is the idol of self. It's the last idol that must be torn down as we learn to consecrate our lives to the Lord.